What's in Your Fridge: Colleen Rennison

What’s in Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz Ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6 cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Colleen Rennison



Who are you


I am the lead singer of the ne'er-do-well rapscallions that make up the band No Sinner, an adventure-seeking tramp who sings for her supper on the best of nights.

First concert

The first concert I ever went to was Coolio. It was right after “Gangsta’s Paradise” came out, and Dangerous Minds was the biggest movie in a third-grader's world. Pretty sure it was at GM Place (it will always be GM Place to me). My sister, who was two years older than me, was going with her friends and I wasn’t about to miss out. My friend’s dad was a writer for the Province and, bar-star in training that I was, I asked him if he could get tickets. It was my first experience with a press box. I was eight. The beginning. 




Life-changing concert

A lifetime ago, when I was living in NY, through some magical chain of events I ended up in the legendary Apollo Theater as an audience member for Elvis Costello's Spectacle. It was John Prine, Lyle Lovett, and Ray Lamontagne. My father just so happened to be visiting at the time, and he had always been an appreciator of great music. Being able to bring him was definitely a moment I'll never forget. It was the first time I'd ever heard John Prine, and the song “Angel From Montgomery” shook me to my bones. The power of song is a wild-ass thing. I still can’t believe that wasn’t a dream.

Top three records

Temples Sun Structures  The combination of Motown-esque beats and side effects mixed with the immaculate psychedelic harmonies, mystical lyrics, and vintage treatment really makes for a good bike ride after a wake and bake.  

Lauryn Hill The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill  This album changed me. I used to listen to it nonstop and sing to it over and over and over again and feel things that didn’t make sense until I was much older than 11. The music, the lyrics, and the heart and her voice on this record transcend comparable definition—it’s just a piece of work unto itself. 

The Band The Last Waltz  I watched the Martin Scorsese film in the laps of my parents when I was still wearing onesie pajamas with the feet in them, and looking back it stands out as some kind of hazy crystal ball. These people were cool, and there was so much more going on behind the surface that I even fathomed at the time, but I swear to God I could feel it. The fun but heavy performances mixed with the craftsmanship of all these classic songs (I mean, between Joni, Neil, Bobby D, the Band, Ronnie Hawkins, Ron Wood, Muddy Waters, Van the Man, the other Neil, the friggin’ Staples Singers, Eric Clapton, and Emmylou, there’s something for everybody) brings it into masterpiece territory.



All-time favourite video

Notorious B.I.G. “Sky's the Limit”  I was basically the same age as the kids in the video at the time (10) and it was basically the coolest thing I’d ever seen—what a stroke of genius on (director) Spike Jonze's part. It felt like I was playing make-believe and there was some parallel universe out there where all my fantasies were in my reach. I was a child of the ’90s, what can I say. 





What’s in your fridge 

A half-empty beer.  Even though it’s been a few weeks, it still feels like I just got back from tour because my fiancé isn’t home yet and it’s depressing cooking for myself. I have a half-empty beer can because I was cleaning up last night’s festivities this morning and didn’t have the heart to throw it away. I’ll probably drink it later when it’s nice and flat and cold.

A cucumber.  A big cucumber that’s seen better days, from our rider when we played Osoyoos on Canada Day, fresh from our Euro–U.S. tour. I keep telling myself I’m going to use it for a juice fast, but if I use it now it might kill me.

Sriracha.  It’s almost gone and it’ll be the first thing I re-up on during my first posttour trip into Chinatown. They don’t have sriracha (or much hot sauce at all, for that matter) in most of Europe and the States, so when I first got home I was pretty much putting it on my Cheerios.